Category: Inspiration

Web design inspiration and ideas, collections of the best web designs from around the web and various other design inspirations

Grand Designs – Graphic designers showcase – Rock Sound – pt1

What makes designers tick, where do they get their inspiration as well as tips on how to break in to the music apparel design scene.

After reading Gomedias articles about the music apparel industry, in there last post they listed 10 designers within this design industry, seeing there inspiring works i decided to do some more digging of my own to find more artists like these.

The music industry produces some of the best designs from stickers to CD covers and posters, so i found right under my nose in Rock Sound Magazine some interviews with some of these designers that produce some great work in my opinion, each having a unique style and influence.

Below I have scanned in 6 of the interviews with these designers from the magazine, i cannot take any credit for any of these works or interviews, but thought it may help those people looking for some interesting reading on what makes these designers tick and a source where these designers can be found, in every issue of rock sound magazine they interview a different designer each month so be sure to check them out.

Download all PDF Interviews:

Grand Designs – Set 1 [Size 7.5mb]

Pat Graham & Melanie Standage

Worked for bands such as Modest Mouse, Tortoise, The Make-Up, Against Me! and more

Pat Graham and Melanie Standage are responsible for a host of iconic artwork intrinsic to music, both as individuals and as a team.

Pat Graham & Melanie Standage

Article Information

  • Web: 96gillespie.com
  • Interviewer: Rachel Kellehar
  • Rock Sound Issue: 95
  • Download PDF Interview: issue-95 [Right Click – Save As]

Interview Questions

  1. How are the design world and the music world connected?
  2. What are the most important aspects when you are designing for a band
  3. Are there any artists that you admire in terms of designing album artwork?
  4. Can you tell us about some specific pieces or artwork that you’ve worked on together?
  5. Do you think the digital age has changed the nature of photography and dseign?
  6. Youre working on an against Me! photography based sleeve at the moment can you tell us a bit about that?
  7. What advice would you give to young designers who want to get into music related design?

Dave House

Worked for bands such as Dartz!, The Steal, Satori, Hundred Reasons, Cadillac Blindside, Capdown, Get Cape Wear Cape Fly and more

Singer / songwriter, punk rocker artist and designer, Rock sound meets Dave House to discuss music, art and the role of DIY ethos in the world of design.

Dave House

Article Information

Interview Questions

  1. Have you studied design or are you self-taught?
  2. What elements do you believe are necessary for a striking design?
  3. What triggers you creatively?
  4. Tell us about one of your favourite pieces you’ve done
  5. What’s the money like working within the arts / music industry?
  6. Do you think that being part of DIY underground scene has had an effect on the way that you work as a designer?
  7. What are you working on at present design-wise?

Aaron Turner

Worked for bands such as Botch, Aerogramme, Cave In, Isis, Jesu, Knut, Pelican, Converge, Zozobra, Big Business, Lotus Eaters, Oxbow and more

When he’s not busy blessing our ears with some of the finest noise you can hear via his label Hydra Head and band Isis, Aaron Turner is also a dab-hand designer.

Aaron Turner

Article Information

  • Web: isistheband.com
  • Interviewer: Darren Taylor
  • Rock Sound Issue: 97
  • Download PDF Interview: issue-97 [Right Click – Save As]

Interview Questions

  1. How do you come up with the concepts for your designs?
  2. If you could collaborate with any other artists who would you choos and why?
  3. What’s your favourite piece of artwork you’ve done and why?
  4. How much time is spent on creating artwork for your releases?
  5. How much involvement do the bands have in the process?
  6. Ever thought about doing art full-time and abandoning the musical side of your career?
  7. What advice would you offer budding designers looking to follow in your footsteps?
  8. How do you feel about music downloading, is it killing the designer?
  9. Who are your design heroes?
  10. What designs are you working on at present?
  11. When’s that coming out then?

Shepard Fairey

Worked for bands such as The Smashing Pumpkins, Interpol, DJ Shadow, Flogging Molly, Black Eyed Peas, Mission of Burma, Queens of the Stone Age, The Flaming Lips, Modest Mouse, The Cult, Black Sabbath, Slayer, Unsane and more

Shepard Fairey has a posse and you’d better believe it, Rock Sound joins his crew to discover what happens when art, music and politics collide.

Shepard Fairey

Article Information

  • Web: obeygiant.com
  • Interviewer: Rachel Kellehar
  • Rock Sound Issue: 99
  • Download PDF Interview: issue-99 [Right Click – Save As]

Interview Questions

  1. Has music played a role in your development as a designer?
  2. How did you get involved with the new smashing pumpkins record?
  3. What’s been the project that’s excited you the most?
  4. What artsist have influenced you in terms of your design development?
  5. Rumour has it you’re doing a big exhibition here in the UK later this year?
  6. Do you have any advice for aspiring designers?

Vince Ray

Worked for bands such as Stray cats / Brain Setzer, The Damned, Demented Are Go, The Meteors, The Yo-Yos, The Reverend Horton Heat and more

Rock Sound delves into the fantastically filthy design mind of rockabilly stalwart Vince Ray.

Vince Ray

Article Information

Interview Questions

  1. Which demon is most powerful in you, the artist or the musician
  2. Do you think rampant technology helps or hinders an artist?
  3. What kick-started the style you are most known for?
  4. What did you learn from your years in art college?
  5. At what point did you decide to make artwork your career?
  6. What role does a designer play in rock n roll?
  7. So how does a Vince Ray masterpiece come into being?
  8. Was your initial intention to focus on the music industry for your work?
  9. Whats’ next for you as an artist and a musician?

Seldon Hunt

Worked for bands such as Isis, KK Null, Pelican, Neurosis, Stephen O’ Malley, Architects, Bossak, Melvins, Peeping Tom and more.

Rock Sound meets the widely admired, much mimicked Seldon Hunt to discuss his rise to design prominence.

Seldon Hunt

Article Information

  • Web: seldonhunt.com
  • Interviewer: Darren Taylor
  • Rock Sound Issue: 101
  • Download PDF Interview: issue-101 [Right Click – Save As]

Interview Questions

  1. How did you first get involved in designing record covers?
  2. What happened after that?
  3. How would you describe your particular style?
  4. How do you feel about the new breed of designers mimicking your particular style?
  5. Some of your more recent work ventures into the realms of photography, why?
  6. Have any bands not been in to the artwork you’ve created for them?
  7. Now that you’re an established name in design, how does that affect the way you waork?

Download all PDF Interviews:

Grand Designs – Set 1 [Size 7.5mb]

Ultimate resources for grunge design a massive collection

Im a big fan of grunge and creating grunge designs is one of the most interesting things to do in my opinion whether it be a web design or a piece of grunge art.

This post covers where you can find grunge resources such as brushes, textures, tutorials, wordpress themes, fonts and interesting reading articles.

Grunge Web Design Tutorials

Tutorials for creating grunge web designs, there’s also some grunge web sites listed near the bottom of the post

Grunge Brushes Tutorials

There are a few different techniques here for creating brushes hopefully you’ll be able to create the best possible result and maybe mix a few of the techniques together

Grunge Designs Tutorials

Varied tutorials helping with different techniques such as torn edges and worn effects.

Grunge Photography Tutorials

Cool photography grunge effect tutorials adding textures and contrast.

Grunge Textures

Add texture to your design here’s where you can get some good textures

Design Extras

Some cool elements to add to your web designs.

Hand Picked Photoshop brushes from fellow bloggers

Here are some brush sites and some lists of brushes that have been hand picked by fellow bloggers.

Other Brushes

Here a just a few brushes you mat like for you designs

Photoshop brush sites

So you want more brushes check out these quality resources

  • Brush King – The king of Photoshop brushes and just released there own brush set
  • Brusheezy – Nice high quality brush sets

Interesting Reading about Grunge Design

Get you head around grunge and see what others have to say about creating a grunge style web design.

Grunge Fonts

You’ve got a grunge design, now you need your grunge style header fonts

Grunge Web site designs (inspiration)

Look at some examples people have collected of grunge web design

Free Grunge WordPress Themes

Lists of WordPress themes you may be interested in if you want a grunge blog

Well i hope this post provides people with enough grunge resources to either be inspired or get some useful resources to create your next grunge design.

Typographic + Design inspiration from music magazine ads – pt 2

This post carries the same theme as the first part Awesome artistic inspiration from music magazine adverts both parts add up to 45 images.

Hopefully these can provide some more inspiration to people, to see how the adverts have been put together using colours, vector art, floral and other design elements to tie the design in.

Panic At The Disco

Design Features: Vintage, floral patters, worn texture, purples

panic at the disco

The Vines

Design Features: Design Vector foliage, honey comb texture, greens, white, horizontal text

the vines

Orange

Design Features: Horizontal design, gradient, black background, retro

orange

Radiohead

Design Features: Grunge paint splatters, multicoloured, justified text

radiohead

Stag Dagger

Design Features: Vector shapes, grainy white background, pink

stag dagger

Zoo 2008

Design Features: Faint star burst background, organic design elements, centered text

zoo thousand

Waxon Live

Design Features: Dark, pink, blue, subtle vector elements

waxon

Travis

Design Features: Grunge, Blocks of colour, textured background, yellow, black, paint splatters

Travis

The Verve

Design Features: Deep sky, light to dark, greys, yellows, deep purples

the verve

The Hop farm Festival

Design Features: Vivid gradient background, centered text, green, orange, yellows

the hop farm

The Edge Festival

Design Features: Grungy worn background, distressed edges, blue, black

the edge fest

The Big Chill

Design Features: blocks of text, depth of field photo, organic

the big chill

Should I Enter Media Awards

Design Features: Vector brain, bubbly text. palin white background

should I enter

Santogold

Design Features: Cut out design elements, paper, foliage

santogold

Rip Curl Board Masters

Design Features: Vivid grunge background, cut out pantone design elements, yellows, reds

rip curl

Radio 1s Big Weekend

Design Features: Vector art, sky background, blues

radio 1

OYA 2008

Design Features: Hand draw vectors, bold design, yellows, old

oya

NME Festival Guide

Design Features: Vector burst, blue background, floral patterns

nme

NME New Noise

Design Features: Urban building surround, grungy, red

new noise

Lowlands

Design Features: Printed on cardboard, torn edges, creased, doodle art

low lands

Foals Cassius

Design Features: Doodle Art, pink background, grungy

foals cassius

NME Awards Tour 2008

Design Features: Urban borders, grunge texture, greens, black

nme awards

NME Awards 2008 Big Gig

Design Features: Urban burst, bold, white textured background

nme awards big gig

Gallows

Design Features: Illustration art, dark, vines, greens

gallows

02 Promotion

Design Features: Typography rabbit, depth of field, blues

02

There may be a part 3 to this in the future I guess the creativity never ends. Check out part one Awesome artistic inspiration from music magazine adverts if you missed it.

Awesome artistic inspiration from music magazine adverts

I was browsing some old NME music magazines and I realised some of the advertisements for festivals and bands truly are works of art, they can provide some good ideas for any designer be it for web or print, lots of textures and colours to get some creative inspiration.

Below is 20 examples that I scanned in to the computer, You can also see part 2 of Artistic Music Magazine Adverts

Intel Studio

Design Features: Torn paper, torn paper background, abstract image in centre, vibrant gradient colours on black paper.

Intel Studio

Fenchurch

Design Features: Wood grain, vintage, torn paper, old creased card, whites, blacks

Fenchurch

Bloom

Design Features: handdrawn, bold colours, note book paper, greens, blues, blocks of info, distressed.

Bloom

Loaded in the park

Design Features: torn, grunge borders, star burst background, vibrant colours

Loaded in the park

Laura Marling

Design Features: Worn Floral pattern, depicting a man

Laura Marling

Latitude Festival 2008

Design Features: foliage, floral borders, 3D Title, faint sky water colour background

Latitude Festival 2008

KOKO Black & White

Design Features: Black and White, floral design surrounding text and border, vintage

KOKO Black & White

KOKO

Design Features: Old Vintage design, black and red, small sketched images, floral design

KOKO

Hydro Connect

Design Features: Coloured floral border design, floral dividers, light blue gradient background, green, blue, white

Hydro Connect

Hot Club De Paris

Design Features: Vintage poster style, blue, red,

Hot Club De Paris

The Hoosiers

Design Features: abstract foliage and wildlife border, white

The Hoosiers

Green Man festival

Design Features: floral star burst, vector drawing, greens, yellows

Green Man festival

Gola

Design Features: Vibrant colours, white background, simple

Gola

Hydro Connect Festival

Design Features: Coloured floral border, photos, gradient background

Hydro Connect Festival

Cage The Elephant

Design Features: grainy background, hand drawn skull, multicoloured, purples

Cage The Elephant

Bradford Music Week

Design Features: yellow, black, grunge, blocks, paint splatters, stripes, distressed

Bradford Music Week

Biffy Clyro

Design Features: Blues, water colours, focus on image, left aligned

Biffy Clyro

Bandstand

Design Features: green blue background gradient, hand drawn floral border and butterflies

Bandstand

Babysahmbles

Design Features: Red, old, worn creased, vintage border, expensive looking card

Babysahmbles

Awesome Badges

Design Features: Circus, poster, floral pattern, red, yellow, vector art

Awesome Badges

You can also see part 2 of Artistic Music Magazine Adverts

22 Online Web / Design magazines you should look at

I was looking for some nice resources and found some really cool online art and design magazines that provide some very interesting reading while I wasn’t working,

This post isn’t based around web design in particular and explores other areas of art and design, there are a lot of interesting ideas that can be found once you start looking.

some of them have a few links to other new and exciting websites and blogs, The work found on these sites are very artistic and inspirational and I’ll certainly be looking further into some of these, hope you all find it as interesting as I did.

  1. Computer Arts – Awesome online tutorials as well as an inspirational gallery of work by readers.
  2. Urban Collective – creative images and design sites worth a look
  3. Beast the bible of inspiration – Design, typography, art, illustration, photography, mind & matter and all kinds of creative exhausts, published in PDF format but sadly no longer in publication.
  4. Vitamin – Excellent source of reading just choose which topic you want, some of the categories are CSS, Design, Web Apps
  5. Booooooom – Cool articles about art, design, music etc also check out their friends list for more cool work.
  6. Communication Arts – Showcasing some of the best advertising graphic design, check out some of the links on the features dropdown.
  7. Smashing magazine – Huge amounts of web design information and inspiration.
  8. CSS Globe – A site dedicated to web standards, and fresh articles contributed by members.
  9. .net – Tutorials and interviews with professionals for developers and designers.
  10. Design is kinky – Showcasing some of the most inspiring art and design portfolios.
  11. Design melt down – Excellent galleries of websites as well as articles covering problems in web design.
  12. Digital web magazine – Educational articles about aspects of web design such as css, business, and social networking.
  13. Eye magazine – Intriguing articles about graphic design, check out some of their issues lots of reading and not a lot of pictures though just click on issues.
  14. Format – Some very nice work and articles can be found on this site that will defiantly inspire.
  15. Graphis – Under construction but will provide a good source of photographic inspiration i expect.
  16. Net diver – Design and digital culture some exciting pieces of work.
  17. Sitepoint – Interesting industry news.
  18. Surf Station – Interesting art and design news.
  19. The dezine – Galleries of inspirational work.
  20. Think Faest! – A peculiar blog with excellent, work check out the categories and blog roll sections.
  21. My computerlove – More interesting articles to get you thinking.
  22. Design Diary – art and digital design lounge, check out the links signal part lots of nice sites to be seen.

 

Reader Recommendations

  1. Typesites – Weekly showcases of websites with interesting typography
  2. I love typography – A vast resource of every thing to do with typography
  3. Free Design Magazine – created to inform designers about the latest news about design, and also free resources
  4. Destructed – Art and design PDF magazine
  5. A list Apart – Explores the design, development, and meaning of web content.
  6. Graphic Competitions – Graphic design competitions.

Any one knows of any other magazine sites that provide a good source of interesting reading and imagery.